I took the Bar Exam more than once, several times actually, and lived to tell the tale....retakers take heart...the bar is a bitch...but not impossible...

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Infinite Hope.......

Ah well......what can I say? I have my days.....since I threw myself such an epic bitch fest the other day.....I thought maybe I'd follow up with a little less doom and gloom eh?

I was talking with a very good friend of mine not long ago.....I mentioned to him that I was absolutely a die hard optimist, how else could I be here slugging away at this exam like I have after all the setbacks?....his response was, " Optimism is believing hope triumphs over experience".

While I'm certain that wasn't his own definition, it was new to me and I don't think I've heard anything truer is some time.....I thought maybe I'd devote a little space to hoping.....

Hope is an emotional belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.

Hope implies a certain amount of perseverance — ie. believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.

Hopefulness is somewhat different than optimism, in that hope is an emotional state, where optimism is a conclusion reached through a deliberate thought pattern which leads to a positive attitude.

But hope and optimism both can be based in unrealistic belief, or fantasy. -----Wikipedia

I'm a huge mythology fan....so I found this especially interesting....

Hope was personified in Greek mythology as Elpis. When Pandora opened Pandora's Box, she let out all the evils except one: Hope. Apparently the Greeks considered Hope to be as dangerous as all the world's evils.

But without hope to accompany all their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. It was a great relief when Pandora revisited her box and let out hope as well.

It may be worthy to note that in the story, Hope is represented as weakly leaving the box but is in effect far more potent than any of the major evils.

Hope can be "passive in the sense of a wish or a prayer" - or "active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent, personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea. "

I know I can't hope myself a passing letter.....but I'm just as certain I'll never get that damn letter without hoping.......here's hoping we all have an active plan, with persistent personal action to acheive the goal.....

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope-----MLK, Jr.

great comments about hope. My motivation has just waxed and waned throughout this whole time. Its been so hard to do this over and over and over again (i'm aiming for nc passage for the fourth time). But, these observations are so true. Regardless of what happens, we need to keep hoping. For the past year and a half, I've lost hope. Its only been recently I've regained it. Thanks for posting this...good luck to you...I see you're going for NC too! Wow, I'm so glad I chose such a tough bar to take...=)

I wrote about hoping b/c I know how easy it is to lose that during this....I am in a much better place than I was when I started all this believe me....

I really know what its like to despair over this thing....and of course it isn't worth that....death is worth despair, not the NC Bar Exam....

And nah...I don't really think NC is too dificult, you can do it...though I am extremely interested to know whether some of NC repeaters are in / out of state takers...as in where did ya go to law school?

well, i'm the 4 time taker of nc...okay, i went to law school out of state. but, i'm born and raised here in nc...but, it was funny to note that the seven of us that came from my law school to take the nc bar exam all failed it once before people started passing it...me and one other girl are the only two left to pass it for the 4th time. interesting, huh? i have thought for a while its biased towards in state law school students (i'll probably get jumped all over for that one). but, its also biased towards first and second time takers. i know the odds are totally stacked against me...i don't care though. i'm totally preparing for a life outside the law...i've got too many wonderful qualities that are wasting away since i got out of law school two years ago. i'm really in a state of despair over this. even if i got a you passed letter, i don't think i would practice at all. i want to run as far away from the law as possible...i even thought about quitting while i was in law school, but i couldn't because i'd let too many people in my family down. now, i've realized that i'm pursuing my family's dreams and not my own. that is tough and an expensive lesson to learn. i wish you the best...but, i've decided this time is it for me, pass or no pass. where did you go to school?

I have to maintain hope too... and it is not easy. Hope, having a positive outlook, these things are particularly important for us retakers. They are the things that help us stay on track, pounding away at the materials when the odds seem against us. I agree with one of the above posters that the bar exam (not just NC but elsewhere – it is true for us here in NY as well) really favors first time takers. But there are people who pass on the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth time. The only way you can guarantee failing the bar exam… is if you never take it again. If you stop trying. And no matter how small my chances are, I’m not going to stop trying until I make this thing. Even if I have to trick myself, or have to go through this embarrassment time and time again. After I learn a bit from my mistakes, I try and approach each time as if it were the last time. Because one day it will be.

I think that is incredibly interesting that all 7 from your out-of-state class failed, what kind of percentages did they post in-state I wonder? I was the only one in my class from Florida to come back home to test, so I don't have any idea how they would have fared here, though I do know my school has a very decent passage rate in FL...

I'm really interested to hear any other stories like yours...and no, I'm not screaming conspiracy either, but it never hurts to be informed....I've often wondered how my essays sucked bad enough to flunk me w/ a 155 on the MBE...I'm not a total idiot....

And did ya know that a huge number of people are deterred by flunking? As in they just don't try again? Ever?